


Reunion

by summerrain24601



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-09-03
Packaged: 2019-04-04 04:54:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14012610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summerrain24601/pseuds/summerrain24601
Summary: They went to Adamant to stop the Wardens from summoning a demon army. They didn't expect to find her in the middle of it all.





	1. Chapter 1

It was chaos. Wardens fighting Wardens fighting demons, with the Inquisition throwing itself into the middle of it all. That made it easy for Ellena Mahariel to wander through relatively unnoticed, though, for which she was oddly thankful. She trailed behind the Inquisitor and her party, which at present also consisted of Hawke, the Champion of Kirkwall, and a Warden from the Free Marches, Stroud. No one spared a second glance for the elf in Warden armor slinking through the shadows like she owned the place. So when everyone was gathered in the stone courtyard, with a magister standing behind the Orlesian Commander, Clarel, they were startled out of their silence when an arrow went whizzing past the mage's head. 

"Stop this madness, Clarel!" Her voice wasn't magnified by anything more than her own will, and perhaps her reputation. "You know who the magisters are!" Whispers began to radiate through the Wardens as they began to recognize the elf and the markings on her face. 

"The Hero of Ferelden deigns to make an appearance," the magister scoffed. "You're too late, knife-ear." Ellena's eyes narrowed as she readied another arrow. 

"Raising a demon army? I saw what happened to Soldier's Peak when Warden-Commander Dryden tried that very thing," Ellena confessed. "It destroyed the Wardens of Ferelden! It got us exiled from Ferelden for two hundred years! A mistake that nearly cost us the south during the Fifth Blight." The Inquisitor and her companions simply stared at the elf. "Is that the kind of fate you want your Wardens to face?!" 

"I…" Clarel hesitated, and the magister began to talk to her again. 

"Blackwall, can you talk to them?" the Inquisitor asked suddenly, turning to one of the men in her party. He nodded and began to speak, but Ellena wasn't really listening. She didn't lower her bow until Clarel ordered her Wardens to help the Inquisitor against the magister, but then the dragon attacked and chaos ensued once again.  
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"Inquisitor! The archdemon flew off as soon as you disappeared!" 

"That thing was no archdemon," Ellena interrupted, walking up to where the Inquisitor stood on the raised dias. It had probably held a statue of some sort at one point. Ellena winced and put one hand to her head. "It gave me a splitting headache, but I couldn’t hear it. It's a fake. A well-formed fake, perhaps, but fake nonetheless." 

"Commander Ellena, what should we do?" one of the Wardens asked her. 

"Any Wardens not officially stationed in Orlais should return to their posts," Ellena told them. "Other than that…" She looked back up at the Inquisitor. "I believe our fate lies in your hands, Inquisitor."

"You stay and do whatever you can to help," the Inquisitor decided. Hawke decided to go to Weisshaupt while Ellena led the Ferelden Wardens back across the border. 

"Looks like we're going the same direction," Ellena said as a few of the Wardens detached themselves from the crowd to stand near her. An elf mage, a pair of dwarves, and a human with a bow. 

"Good to see you again, Commander," the dwarf woman with two daggers on her back said.

"Good to be back, Sigrun," she said with a small smile. "Glad to see you all survived this mess."

"You trained us better than that," Nathaniel said simply, crossing his arms. 

"Gather the rest of the Ferelden Wardens, and we'll be heading back to the Vigil."

"Understood," he responded, vanishing into the crowd once more. Ellena was about to give orders to the others when a lilting, musical voice met her ears. She turned, eyes wide, and spied a figure in odd silvery armor with a purple-grey sash covering their head. The voice was coming from that figure. And she could tell in the way the person walked that it was someone she had missed more than a little. She darted through the crowd to the stranger and effectively pounced on the woman in question, throwing her arms around the woman's shoulders and surprising not only her but the man she was talking to as well. 

"Ma vhenan, I didn't expect to see you here," she said with a laugh. 

"Ellena?" Leliana asked, stunned. Ellena released her grip from around the human woman's shoulders and took a step back, allowing Leliana to turn around. Ellena had her hands clasped behind her back, and she was wearing a new set of armor. But she was still the same elf that had fallen for the Nightingale's song ten years previous. She grinned up at the redhead, then took another step and crashed her lips against Leliana's, hands grasping Leliana's armor. After another moment of surprise, Leliana wrapped her arms tightly around her elf, savoring their brief reunion. They both knew it wouldn't last long, but the fact that it had happened accidentally made it even better. Ellena broke the kiss reluctantly, looking lovingly up at Leliana. 

"I missed you, vhenan," she admitted.

"And I you, my love," Leliana whispered, touching her forehead to the elf's. Just then, someone nearby cleared their throat and the two women looked up to find a blushing blond-haired man with a rather furry collar nearby. 

"Cullen, how many casualties?" the Inquisitor asked.

"Wait, Cullen?" Ellena asked, eyes wide. Cullen was the name of one of the templars from the Circle Tower. He met her eyes for a brief moment before looking away and nodding. "You're looking a lot better than you did last time we met. That's good." 

"Ah, yes, I am…" he responded, somewhat awkwardly. Leliana had kept one arm around Ellena's waist, and Ellena did the same to her Nightingale. 

"Ma serannas, Inquisitor, for warning me about Corypheus," Ellena said politely. "And for looking after Leliana." Leliana gave her a sideways look. "What? I worry about you even more when I can't be nearby, you know." 

"That's what friends do," the Inquisitor responded. She hesitated, then looked back up at the other elf. "Ir abelas, hahren. I heard of Clan Sabrae's fate."

"Ma serannas, da'len," Ellena responded softly. "It's still hard to accept sometimes, but…" She fell silent as Hawke approached.

"Someone's writing this down, I hope," Hawke said with a soft laugh. "A gathering of heroes quite like this may not happen again for a few ages." Ellena gave Hawke a wary look, knowing quite well the part that the Champion had played in the destruction of her clan. "If you're Mahariel, Merrill wanted me to say hello." 

"Give her my regards as well," Ellena responded stiffly. Despite having been on good terms with her clan's former First ten years ago, she had heard that the reason her clan was gone was because of Merrill.

"Whenever I get back to Kirkwall, though that might not be for a few years," Hawke admitted. "Inquisitor, take care of Varric for me." And with that, she left. A few of the Wardens had chosen to follow her to Weisshaupt, and they followed her through and out of the fortress. 

"What are your plans?" Leliana asked Ellena, looking down at her elf.

"Ferelden needs her Wardens," she said simply. "Nathaniel's gathering them all up for me. Hopefully, we'll be able to travel to Skyhold with you before we make for Amaranthine. Well, I'll send Nathaniel with the others to Amaranthine." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "We've got so many recruits recently that Vigil's Keep isn't enough. But we have Soldier's Peak, so I'm going to see if it's fit for habitation yet." 

"You have quite the task ahead of you," Leliana said with a soft sigh.

"Just a bit longer before I can be by your side forever," Ellena whispered. "But Duncan was the first Warden-Commander in Ferelden since the Storm Age. I need to at least lay the groundwork for whoever becomes Commander after me. Soon, though, we'll be together again for good."


	2. Mahariel and Alistair

Just because she was Commander didn't mean she had to be at the head of the battle. No, there were better places for her. Like right here, helping the healers where she could with what knowledge she had. All Dalish learned the basics of healing. Which herb would keep out infections, or reduce fevers, and so on. Splinting and bandaging were included in their basic healing lessons. It was one of the tests members of Clan Sabrae had to pass before they could earn their vallaslin. So here she was, out of the Inquisition's way and being helpful at the same time. All while trying to ignore the song in her head that grew ever louder. Months ago, it had been but a whisper at the back of her mind, easily drowned out whenever she was doing something. But now, it was impossible to forget. Very few things made it fade now, and battle was one of them. But she didn't want to become one of those Wardens. She wasn't willing to lead the charge against fellow Wardens, not when she'd seen the remains of so many in Ostagar. 

Between one step and the next, she was doubled over from the sudden, splitting pain in her skull. This wasn't the Calling. She knew exactly what this was. The clang of metal on stone echoed several times around the camp, as other Wardens reacted. Some, but not all. Just another difference between Wardens who joined during a Blight and the ones that didn't. She forced herself to look up at the sky, just in time to see the dragon soar over them. Dread filled her heart, and her face lost all color. The blast of brilliant red fire was enough to confirm the suspicion in most of the ones around her. Archdemons didn't spit flames of orange and yellow. The one she'd fought atop Fort Drakon had breathed purple fire. The fire this abomination spat was tomato-red, not natural flame at all. 

Then the song returned, even louder than before, causing her to shriek in frustration. "No, this isn't possible!" she insisted. 

"Shouldn't we have been able to sense that?" she heard one Warden ask. She wondered that too, for a moment, before the whispers pushed the thought away. 

"I already gave everything to the Blight! What else do you want from me?!" she screamed suddenly, hands on her temples. All eyes were drawn to her, but she didn't notice. She'd only defeated the last Blight ten years ago. That wasn't enough time for another one. Several Wardens gave her looks of pity as she began pacing. Anything to keep the song, the whispers, at bay. They could all hear it by now, of course, but the newest Wardens didn't seem to be as adversely affected. Nor did the ones who'd been Wardens longer than her. She fell to her knees on the stone, earning sympathetic winces from around the healer's camp. A human with bow in hand pushed through the crowd and knelt at her side, while another elven woman turned her back on her half-healed patient and ran to her fallen comrade.

"Commander!" Nathaniel called, one hand on her shoulder. He looked up at the elf kneeling on her other side. "Can't you do something?"

"No magic in the world can fix this..." Velanna admitted softly. She had spent countless hours pouring through any and all magical tomes she could get her hands on, but had turned up nothing. "When I went to Soldier's Peak a few years ago, the shems--sorry, humans--had found some Warden records in Avernus's lab, in the tower. But all they said is that Wardens who join during a Blight are more sensitive to the call of an archdemon."

"Explains why only a few of them reacted so strongly," Nathaniel muttered. 

"Ella!" called a voice unknown to them. A woman in purple ran over and dropped to her knees before the Commander. "Ella, look at me." She did. So few called her by name, let alone a nickname from her childhood, that it broke through her haze of pain and fear. She blinked in disbelief, then clung to her old friend like a child might to their mother. Then, another ten or fifteen minutes later, she looked up and pushed away from the bard, almost confused.

"The song. The voices. They're gone," she explained, sounding completely lucid once again. "Just like that." She glanced around, realizing what had just happened. "By the Creators, that's embarrassing..." Leliana stood and held a hand to the elf. "Is everyone coming out of it?"

"Spymaster!" a man called, running over in the odd green armor of the Inquisition. "Warden mages appear to have been released from the binding spell and are turning against their demons!"

"What of the Inquisitor?" Leliana asked.

"Some of the fortress collapsed, with the Inquisitor and her party on it. From the flash of light, I think she opened a Rift."

Ella blanched again. Alistair was with them! "A rift... into the Fade?" she echoed softly. "You mean, they've gone _physically_ into the Fade?" She muttered an angry string of words in Dalish. "I can't leave his side for a minute before he gets into trouble!" And this time, she couldn't go hunting him down.   
_______________________________________

The wait felt like an eternity, but three bodies tumbled out of the rift in the courtyard. Three people that were quickly ushered away to the nearest healers. She didn't pay attention to them. When nothing happened, her worry only grew. So she made herself busy, hunting down the Wardens stationed in Ferelden, and sending them off to her Constable. He was organizing everyone for their return trip across Ferelden. It wasn't until she turned around after sending another of her recruits to find Nathaniel that she spotted her blond-haired hero coming toward her. She closed the gap with running steps, weaving between people with the agility only a Dalish hunter could ever truly master. He caught her at just the right moment, spinning her around once before she jammed her lips against his, tears running freely down her cheeks. 

"Don't you ever scare me like that again!" she demanded once both feet were back on the ground. She clung to the links of leather between plates of his Warden-issue armor, and he wrapped his arms around her. 

"You know I can't make that kind of promise, given the work we do," he joked, but she could hear the subtle tremor in his voice that betrayed how scared he'd been, and how relieved he was. 

"Ir abelas, vhenan," she muttered softly, her voice muffled by his armor. She raised her head just in time to catch his kiss on her lips, before turning to see the one who had returned her love to her. "Ma serranas, lethellan," she said to the elven Inquisitor. The other elf just shook her head and made her way to her companions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was going to be more to that, instead of such an abrupt ending, but it is almost midnight and I've gotten out what of it that needed writing. Might add a better ending in a few days.


End file.
